Latch with linearly operated lock lever

ABSTRACT

An actuator for a latch is provided, the actuator having: a motor operatively coupled to a gear train; and a sector gear pivotally mounted to the actuator and operatively coupled to the gear train, wherein rotational movement of the sector gear is translated into linear movement of a link operatively coupled to the sector gear and wherein linear movement of the link causes a linear movement of a portion of a lock lever operatively coupled to the actuator.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the following U.S. provisionalapplication Ser. No. 61/940,065 filed Feb. 14, 2014; Ser. No. 61/940,147filed Feb. 14, 2014; Ser. No. 61/940,421 filed Feb. 15, 2014; and Ser.No. 61/940,422 filed Feb. 15, 2014, the contents each of which areincorporated herein by reference thereto.

BACKGROUND

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a latch and moreparticularly, a vehicle latch.

In some applications, latches are required to perform numerousoperations within limited confines of an application area of the itemthey are installed in.

Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a latch that is able to performthe required functions while being subject to certain spacerequirements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An actuator for a latch is provided. The actuator having: a motoroperatively coupled to a gear train; and a sector gear pivotally mountedto the actuator and operatively coupled to the gear train, whereinrotational movement of the sector gear is translated into linearmovement of a link operatively coupled to the sector gear and whereinlinear movement of the link causes a linear movement of a portion of alock lever operatively coupled to the actuator. In another embodiment,the gear train is spring biased into a central or neutral position.

In another embodiment, a vehicle latch is provided. The vehicle latchhaving: a lock/unlock actuator; a lock lever rotatably mounted to thelatch and operatively coupled to the actuator; a sector gear pivotallymounted to the lock/unlock actuator and operatively coupled to a geartrain, the gear train being operatively coupled to a motor, whereinrotational movement of the sector gear by the motor is translated intolinear movement of a link operatively coupled to the sector gear and thelock lever, wherein linear movement of the link causes linear movementof a portion of the lock lever. In another embodiment, the gear train isspring biased into a central or neutral position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other features, aspects, and advantages of the presentinvention will become better understood when the following detaileddescription is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in whichlike characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

FIGS. 1-4 are views of a latch according to various embodiments of thepresent invention.

Although the drawings represent varied embodiments and features of thepresent invention, the drawings are not necessarily to scale and certainfeatures may be exaggerated in order to illustrate and explain exemplaryembodiments the present invention. The exemplification set forth hereinillustrates several aspects of the invention, in one form, and suchexemplification is not to be construed as limiting the scope of theinvention in any manner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference is made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,969,789; 6,568,741;6,679,531; 8,348,310 and U.S. Patent Publication Nos. US 2010/0127512;US 2011/0204659; US 2012/0292927 and provisional Patent Application Ser.No. 61/806,530 filed Mar. 29, 2013, the entire contents each of whichare incorporated herein by reference thereto.

Referring now to the FIGS. and in particular, FIGS. 1-4, a latch 10 isillustrated. In one embodiment, the latch 10 is a vehicle door latch orany other type of vehicle latch. Latch 10 has an actuator 12 operativelycoupled to components of the latch 10 that are located within a latchhousing 14.

Latch 10 has a lock lever 16 rotatably mounted to the latch about anaxis 18 for movement in the direction of arrows 20. The rotationalmovement of the lock lever actuates other component(s) of the latch 10,for example a detent lever or pawl that operatively engages a claw orfork bolt of the latch 10. It is, of course, understood that the locklever 16 may also be configured to operatively engage other componentsof the latch 10 and the interaction of the lock lever 16 to the detentlever is one of many applications and/or operations that may be usedalone or in combination with other features/operations of the latch 10.For example, movement of the lock lever may couple or uncouple a detentlever or pawl of the latch from a release lever or release handle suchthat movement of the same may either open the latch or have no effect onthe latch. In other words movement of the lock lever 16 locks or unlocksthe latch by coupling or uncoupling components of the latch throughmovement of the lock lever.

In one embodiment, the lock lever 16 is driven by a motor 22 of theactuator 12 via linear motion of a movable link 24 in the direction ofarrows 26. The moveable link 24 is pivotally connected to the lock leverat one end and a sector gear 28 at the other. The sector gear 28 ispivotally mounted to a housing 30 of the actuator 12 or any otherlocation of the latch 10 such that movement in the direction of arrows32 is possible. Sector gear 28 is configured to operatively engage agear 34 rotatably mounted to a worm gear 36 rotatably mounted to theactuator housing 30 for rotation about an axis 38 in the direction ofarrows 40. Worm gear 36 is operatively coupled to a worm 42 which isrotatably driven by motor 22. Gear 34 has a protrusion 44 that islocated between a pair of features 46 and 48 of worm gear 36 such thatas worm gear 36 rotates in one direction (e.g., clockwise) feature 46will contact protrusion 44 and thus rotate sector gear 28 andaccordingly move link 24 linearly such that lock link 16 can be rotatedor pivoted. If the rotation of the worm 42 is reversed, the worm gear 36will rotate counter clockwise and worm gear 36 will rotate and causecounter clockwise rotation of sector gear 28 via feature 48 contactingprotrusion 44 and thus causes rotational of pivotal movement of sectorgear 28 in an opposite direction to that caused by feature 46 contactingprotrusion 44 and thus link 24 is also moved in an opposite lineardirection and lock link 16 rotates or pivots in an opposite direction tothat when feature 46 contacts protrusion 44. Accordingly and through therotational movement of the worm gear 36 in the direction of arrows 40 arange of operational movements of components of the latch 10 ispossible.

As illustrated, the sector gear 28 is connected or operatively coupledto the lock lever 16 through the movable link 24. The sector gear 28engages or is operatively coupled to a gear train 50 connected to thedrive motor 22. Accordingly, the actuator 12 has a motor drive 22engaging a gear train 50 to connect with a sector gear 28. The sectorgear 28 has an integral arm 52 and rotates about a fixed pivot 54. Thearm 52 travels through an arc created by the rotation of the motor 22and the gear train 50. The motion developed by the gear rotation and thearm 52 develops a linear motion at the end of the arm 52 that equals thelinear travel of the lock lever 16. The arm 52 of the sector gear 28 isconnected to the lock lever 16 by a link 24 with pivoting connections 56and 58 allowing for the change between the rotational movement and thelinear travel.

This arrangement or design disclosed herein also allows for a compactdesign. In addition, this design or arrangement also allows for lessmovable components required to be located between the motor 22 and locklever 18 thus reducing cost, noise, size requirements, possible wearissues etc. In one embodiment, the actuator 12 is configured to beperpendicularly arranged with respect to a plane 70, which is parallelto or corresponds with housing 14.

As mentioned above, the actuator 12 has motor 22 and worm drive 42engaging a worm gear 36 with floating pinion gear 34. The pinion gear 34engages the sector gear 28 that is attached to the link 22. The link 24is coupled to the lock lever 16 of the latch 10 to move from a locked tounlocked position. A switch 72 is positioned to be actuated by a surface74 of protrusion 44 as it rotates with gear 34 and actuation of switch72 will identify the unlocked position of the latch 10 with thecapability for an additional switch 76 to be provided to identify a doorajar condition. It is understood, that latch 10 may be configured withonly switch 72 or switches 72 and 76 or still other switches. Whenactivated, the motor 22 will drive the gear system or gear train 50,move the link 24 and the latch lever 16. The lever 16 will stay in thelocked or unlocked position as the gear train 50 returns to a centralposition by a spring force of a spring 78 (illustrated schematically bydashed lines) acting on the worm gear 36. In other words, sector gear 28is not pivoted or rotated until either one of features 46 or 48 contactsprotrusion 44. This will occur when the motor 22 is operated in one oftwo directions and reversing the flow of current to the motor 22 willreverse the direction of the motor 22 and move the latch lever or locklever 16 in an opposite direction thus, changing the state of the latch10 from lock to unlock or vice versa. Once the state has been changedthe spring 78 will again return the gear train 50 and/or worm gear 36 toa central position while pinon gear 34 remains in the last positon itwas moved to by either one of features 46 and 48. In other words, theworm gear 36 is spring biased into a neutral position after it has berotated either clockwise or counter clockwise from the neutral positionby the motor 22.

Gear 34 is rotatably mounted to a worm gear 36 rotatably mounted to theactuator housing 30 for rotation about an axis 38 in the direction ofarrows 40. Accordingly, gear 34 can rotate with respect to worm gear 36.Worm gear 36 is operatively coupled to a worm 42 which is rotatablydriven by motor 22. Gear 34 has a protrusion 44 that is located betweena pair of features 46 and 48 of worm gear 36 such that as worm gear 36rotates in one direction (e.g., clockwise) from a home or centralposition and gear 34 is in the position illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4,feature 46 will contact protrusion 44 and thus rotate sector gear 28clockwise and accordingly move link 24 linearly such that lock link 16can be rotated or pivoted.

Once, the motor 22 is denergized worm gear 36 rotates counter clockwiseback into the central or home position (see at least FIGS. 1-4) via aspring biasing force however, gear 34 will remain in the positionillustrated in at least FIG. 3. At this point (e.g., when the worm gear36 rotates counter clockwise back to the home or central position due tothe spring biasing force and gear 34 remains in the position illustratedin FIG. 3) feature 48 is positioned adjacent to protrusion 40 such thatcounter clockwise rotation of worm gear 36 will cause counter clockwiserotation of gear 34 via feature 48. Thereafter and when the motor isdenergized worm gear 36 returns to the home or central position and gear34 remains in the position illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 such thatfeature 46 is adjacent to protrusion 40 and is ready to move gear 34 viaclockwise movement of worm gear 36.

Worm gear 36 is spring biased back into the home or central position bya spring 78 located between worm gear 36 and actuator housing 30. Asmentioned above, worm gear 36 is operatively coupled to the worm 42which is rotatably driven by the motor. Gear 34 is rotatably mounted toworm gear 36 about an axis such that gear 34 can rotate with respect tothe worm gear 36 about axis.

If the rotation of the worm 42 is reversed, the worm gear 36 willreverse its rotation and thus cause an appropriate rotation of thesector gear 28 as either feature 46 or 48 contacts protrusion 44depending on the location of gear 34 and thus causes rotational ofpivotal movement of sector gear 28 and link 24 is also moved in acorresponding linear direction. Accordingly and through the rotationalmovement of the worm gear 36 in the direction of arrows 40 a range ofoperational movements of components of the latch 10 is possible.

It is noted that the protrusion 44 of FIG. 1 has a slightly differentconfiguration than that illustrated in FIG. 2. It is also noted that thedistance between features 46 and 48 is larger than protrusion 44 suchthat the rotational movement of gear 34 with respect to worm gear 36 ispossible. In other words, a radial distance between the pair of features46 and 48 of the worm gear 36 is greater than a corresponding radialdistance of the protrusion 44 located between the pair of features 46and 48.

Therefore, a latch 10 with an actuator 12 capable of providing fullangular travel of the lock lever 16 with linear motion of a link 24 isprovided.

Switches 72 and 76 are operatively coupled to a controller ormicrocontroller 80 that is provided with the states of switches 72 and76 and can thus operate the motor in the aforementioned oppositedirections based upon the states or information received from theswitches 72 and 76.

As used herein, the terms “first,” “second,” and the like, herein do notdenote any order, quantity, or importance, but rather are used todistinguish one element from another, and the terms “a” and “an” hereindo not denote a limitation of quantity, but rather denote the presenceof at least one of the referenced item. In addition, it is noted thatthe terms “bottom” and “top” are used herein, unless otherwise noted,merely for convenience of description, and are not limited to any oneposition or spatial orientation.

The modifier “about” used in connection with a quantity is inclusive ofthe stated value and has the meaning dictated by the context (e.g.,includes the degree of error associated with measurement of theparticular quantity).

While the invention has been described with reference to an exemplaryembodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art thatvarious changes may be made and equivalents may be substituted forelements thereof without departing from the scope of the invention. Inaddition, many modifications may be made to adapt a particular situationor material to the teachings of the invention without departing from theessential scope thereof. Therefore, it is intended that the inventionnot be limited to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best modecontemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the inventionwill include all embodiments falling within the scope of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A vehicle latch, comprising: a lock/unlockactuator, the lock/unlock actuator having a housing; a lock leverrotatably mounted to a housing of the vehicle latch and operativelycoupled to the lock/unlock actuator; a sector gear pivotally mounted tothe housing of the lock/unlock actuator and operatively coupled to agear train, the gear train being operatively coupled to a motor, thegear train and the motor being located within the housing of thelock/unlock actuator and rotational movement of the sector gear by themotor is translated into linear movement of a link operatively coupledto the sector gear and the lock lever, wherein linear movement of thelink is translated into linear movement of a portion of the lock leveradjacent to and directly secured to the link, the gear train furthercomprising: a worm drive operatively coupled to the motor and a wormgear with a pinion gear rotatably mounted to the worm gear, and thepinion gear is operatively coupled to the sector gear that is pivotallyattached to the link, the sector gear rotating about a fixed pivot andthe sector gear has an integral arm that travels through an arc createdby rotation of the motor and the gear train, movement of the integralarm through the arc causes linear motion of an end of the integral armalong a path and the linear motion of the end of the integral arm isequal to the linear movement of the portion of the lock lever, whereinthe integral arm is pivotally connected to the link at one end and thelock lever is pivotally connected to an opposite end of the link, andthe pinion gear has a protrusion movably located between two separatefeatures of the worm gear, wherein a radial distance between the twoseparate features of the worm gear is greater than a radial distance ofthe protrusion and the protrusion contacts a switch operably coupled toa microcontroller when the pinion gear is rotated from a first positionto a second position; and wherein the housing of the lock/unlockactuator is directly secured to the housing of the vehicle latch suchthat the housing of the lock/unlock actuator is adjacent to andperpendicularly arranged with respect to the housing of the vehiclelatch, and wherein the link is an elongated member that is arranged tobe parallel to the housing of the vehicle latch.
 2. The actuator as inclaim 1, wherein the sector gear is operatively coupled to the motor viathe worm gear.
 3. The actuator as in claim 1, wherein the sector gear isnot pivoted or rotated until either one of the two separate features ofthe worm gear contacts the protrusion of the pinion gear.
 4. The vehiclelatch as in claim 1, wherein the gear train is spring biased into acentral or neutral position.
 5. The vehicle latch as in claim 4, whereinlinear movement of the portion of the lock lever causes rotationalmovement of other portions of the lock lever.
 6. The vehicle latch as inclaim 1, wherein the worm gear is spring biased into a neutral positionafter it has be rotated either clockwise or counter clockwise from theneutral position.